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Foote
“Part mystery, part fable but all original, Jim Foote is sure to be one of your favorite literary detectives—cryptid or otherwise.” —Jordan Farmer, author of The Poison Flood and The Pallbearer
In the space of one weekend in Morgantown, West Virginia, private investigator Big Jim Foote finds himself at the center of two murder investigations. Suspected of one killing at a local festival, he locates the body of a missing person immediately after. The cops are watching him, and Big Jim has a secret he dares not he is a bigfoot living in plain sight, charged with keeping his people in the surrounding hills from being discovered. To protect the bigfoot secret, he must solve both murders—and convince himself it wasn’t a bigfoot who pulled the trigger.
Through the course of his investigations, Big Jim is helped by unique and well-rendered characters and friends in both his bigfoot and human communities. Readers are introduced to Appalachian mountain folk and traditional culture in new ways, even while Big Jim experiences the impact of the opioid epidemic on his own bigfoot kin. By centering a mythical creature as the unlikely protagonist in this enchanting literary murder mystery, Foote offers a winsome redefinition of a cryptid “monster” and breathes new life into the PI genre.
In the space of one weekend in Morgantown, West Virginia, private investigator Big Jim Foote finds himself at the center of two murder investigations. Suspected of one killing at a local festival, he locates the body of a missing person immediately after. The cops are watching him, and Big Jim has a secret he dares not he is a bigfoot living in plain sight, charged with keeping his people in the surrounding hills from being discovered. To protect the bigfoot secret, he must solve both murders—and convince himself it wasn’t a bigfoot who pulled the trigger.
Through the course of his investigations, Big Jim is helped by unique and well-rendered characters and friends in both his bigfoot and human communities. Readers are introduced to Appalachian mountain folk and traditional culture in new ways, even while Big Jim experiences the impact of the opioid epidemic on his own bigfoot kin. By centering a mythical creature as the unlikely protagonist in this enchanting literary murder mystery, Foote offers a winsome redefinition of a cryptid “monster” and breathes new life into the PI genre.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2022
3 people are currently reading
2159 people want to read
About the author
Tom Bredehoft
2 books6 followersMy first paying work--well back in the last century-- was picking cucumbers for thirty-five cents a hundredweight; since then, I've done a lot of other things in order to pay the bills, including teaching medieval literature and working as an antiques dealer. Living in Morgantown, WV, has given me a new appreciation for my own Appalachian roots, and it's been fun for the last few years to spend an hour or two a day writing about Appalachia through the eyes of Big Jim--an outsider and observer as mystified, sometimes, by the foibles of humanity as I am.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 31, 2022
Rounded up to a 4.
This book was a quick read and interesting, but the mystery part of the story was the least interesting aspect. The "solving" was more like a telling of it than a showing, and I felt a bit let down by this.
However, the "hidden in plain sight" narrator and his role as guardian of the Homeland made up for the meh mystery solution.
This book was a quick read and interesting, but the mystery part of the story was the least interesting aspect. The "solving" was more like a telling of it than a showing, and I felt a bit let down by this.
However, the "hidden in plain sight" narrator and his role as guardian of the Homeland made up for the meh mystery solution.
February 12, 2025
I loved this book, but then, who wouldn't like a murder mystery involving a private investigator who happens to be a Bigfoot? The book has a sense of humor, but it is the sense of humor of the Bigfoot protagonist, and that gives the book a special charm.
I would never have known this book existed if it were not for the author joining the bibliophilic society of which I am a member (the Aldus Society), so I am grateful for that coincidence! Not that he told me about the book, but I checked out his website, and read that he was an author in his bio there.
I would never have known this book existed if it were not for the author joining the bibliophilic society of which I am a member (the Aldus Society), so I am grateful for that coincidence! Not that he told me about the book, but I checked out his website, and read that he was an author in his bio there.
August 23, 2022
Quirky, inventive take on the hard-boiled detective story; in this case, the private eye is a bigfoot who manages to blend in with the humans in Morgantown, West Virginia. The story sort of see-saws between two murder investigations which may be tied together and the larger background story of the bigfoot people who have managed to remain hidden for decades, or maybe centuries, in their "Homeland" in the woods outside of Morgantown. The first-person narration is plain but distinctive and the characters are memorable.
August 5, 2023
Captures the true spirit of living in a small town with a bit of added folk lore and mystery
This book captured the spirit of a small town like none other. While I am a resident of the greater Morgantown area and know that now, more than ever, Morgantown isn't a small town, it still feels like that to those of us who have been in the area for a few decades. I could instantly picture all but one of the exact places Dr. Bredehoft mentioned in this book, but I'm sure most smaller towns have similar local hangouts that would easily fit the descriptions: I've gotten coffee and hot dogs from Jim's local hangouts more than once, and I'm pretty sure we frequent the same grocery store.
Being from Preston County, just not quite in Jim's "neck of the woods," I could walk to half-a-dozen families much like the Lovingoods. Dr. Bredehoft captured the essence of their way of life perfectly.
I would absolutely love to learn more about Big Jim's other family members, though. I am absolutely hooked! Next time I'm shopping in Sabraton, though, I'll definitely be on the lookout for Big Jim.
If you like supernatural books and are curious about true life in a small town, please check out this book!
This book captured the spirit of a small town like none other. While I am a resident of the greater Morgantown area and know that now, more than ever, Morgantown isn't a small town, it still feels like that to those of us who have been in the area for a few decades. I could instantly picture all but one of the exact places Dr. Bredehoft mentioned in this book, but I'm sure most smaller towns have similar local hangouts that would easily fit the descriptions: I've gotten coffee and hot dogs from Jim's local hangouts more than once, and I'm pretty sure we frequent the same grocery store.
Being from Preston County, just not quite in Jim's "neck of the woods," I could walk to half-a-dozen families much like the Lovingoods. Dr. Bredehoft captured the essence of their way of life perfectly.
I would absolutely love to learn more about Big Jim's other family members, though. I am absolutely hooked! Next time I'm shopping in Sabraton, though, I'll definitely be on the lookout for Big Jim.
If you like supernatural books and are curious about true life in a small town, please check out this book!
October 16, 2022
Big Jim Foote is a private investigator in West Virginia. After Jim talks with a woman during a standard event security gig and she turns up dead, the detective becomes a suspect. The stakes are much higher than the humans realize, however, because Foote is a bigfoot hiding in plain sight. Meanwhile, the PI had already taken on another case that begins to develop in ways that also lead back to the isolated bigfoot community and so make their existence known.
Jim’s observations of humans and the bigfoot themselves set the novel apart, for the first-person narrator doesn’t quite belong in either community. Like any good fantasy, Foote reflects on what makes us human—and on other possible ways of being. The novel maintains a dry sense of humor and sympathy for its characters (human and otherwise) and offers a vivid portrait of life in Morgantown.
It reads all too quickly, and I eagerly await a sequel!
(Full disclosure: I’m friends with the author.)
Jim’s observations of humans and the bigfoot themselves set the novel apart, for the first-person narrator doesn’t quite belong in either community. Like any good fantasy, Foote reflects on what makes us human—and on other possible ways of being. The novel maintains a dry sense of humor and sympathy for its characters (human and otherwise) and offers a vivid portrait of life in Morgantown.
It reads all too quickly, and I eagerly await a sequel!
(Full disclosure: I’m friends with the author.)
December 28, 2024
I never set out in life to become a fan of Big Foot lore, but here I am.
I met this author at the Shepherdstown Book Festival in 2023, as we immediately bonded over writing about Big Foot. I left with this book in hand, as well as a mini book that he printed on his antique printing press.
I love how the MC, Big Jim Foote, hides in plain sight. He's a detective, which is simultaneously an odd and yet apt profession for a guy who sticks out everywhere he goes due to his stature, and is hiding a BIG secret of his own. But Bredhoft weaves the tale in a such a way that I effortlessly fell into believing the premise.
Jim straddles the fence between the world of humans and that of the Homeland, the dwelling place of the Big Foot people. Mix in murder, small town connections, Appalachian culture, and the all too real rural opioid epidemic, and you get an entertaining mystery that never feels like too tall of a tale, even though some of the characters are, umm, larger than life.
I met this author at the Shepherdstown Book Festival in 2023, as we immediately bonded over writing about Big Foot. I left with this book in hand, as well as a mini book that he printed on his antique printing press.
I love how the MC, Big Jim Foote, hides in plain sight. He's a detective, which is simultaneously an odd and yet apt profession for a guy who sticks out everywhere he goes due to his stature, and is hiding a BIG secret of his own. But Bredhoft weaves the tale in a such a way that I effortlessly fell into believing the premise.
Jim straddles the fence between the world of humans and that of the Homeland, the dwelling place of the Big Foot people. Mix in murder, small town connections, Appalachian culture, and the all too real rural opioid epidemic, and you get an entertaining mystery that never feels like too tall of a tale, even though some of the characters are, umm, larger than life.
February 14, 2023
This is a quirky, original, and engaging book that succeeds in part because Bredehoft takes the trope of the somewhat isolated PI to it's logical conclusion--his PI isn't human, so his sometimes baffled, often insightful, and always idiosyncratic take on the humans he encounters makes a new kind of sense. As a reader, I love mystery novels but am often frustrated by the way that the necessary ironic distance that the PI has to have with others to solve mysteries inevitably means their personal life is a mess. Not so here! Big Jim has a life that suits him, and it makes for such a refreshing read. Looking forward to more, which is to say that I hope this is the first in a series and not the last we get of this world.
February 17, 2025
Fun and easy to read! Actually does a splendid job of addressing serious topics in a non-serious premise (through the eyes of Bigfoot). The write style is well-done, as you’re supposed to believe this was all written by our Bigfoot narrator. Loved the nod to real life places in Morgantown and the creativity done to bring the setting to life. I find the descriptions of the town accurate! This is a great work of art.
July 11, 2024
DNF. I got to page 150 and couldn’t read any longer. Felt like the story dragged on and on and kept going on tangents that weren’t applicable to the story. I kept getting lost in the idea that this was a mystery, it didn’t pull you in enough to feel intrigued.
March 27, 2023
As a former Morgantown resident, I really enjoyed visiting familiar scenes around the area in this story. The mystery itself was fast paced, a quick fun read!
January 9, 2026
Maybe the real cryptids were the friends we made along the way.
December 15, 2022
Big Jim Foote walks just a step past local law enforcement when pursing his cases. A reluctant private investigator, he takes cases that show up on his doorstep rather than seeking them out, perhaps to maintain his not-so-secret identity as a mountain legend. Not a moonshiner, not a marksman. Not a man at all, but a bigfoot. He walks among Morganton’s humans another big mountain guy in need of a good haircut.
Tom Bredenhoft’s debut novel contains all the elements of a mountain story - murder, moonshine, and family feuds. His characters remind me of folks I knew when living in southeastern Ohio. I can see the hard scrabble trails to places hidden just the other side of a laurel hell, the rusted trucks running on nearly bald tires, and the blooms of woodlands flowers. Try it, I think you’d enjoy this one.
Tom Bredenhoft’s debut novel contains all the elements of a mountain story - murder, moonshine, and family feuds. His characters remind me of folks I knew when living in southeastern Ohio. I can see the hard scrabble trails to places hidden just the other side of a laurel hell, the rusted trucks running on nearly bald tires, and the blooms of woodlands flowers. Try it, I think you’d enjoy this one.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews